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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Christmas at the Roberson Museum

I had planned on posting today about Whirling Dervish's first varsity wrestling tournament yesterday, but he dislocated his shoulder at practice Friday afternoon. He claims he's not in pain, just disgruntled about delaying his varsity debut.

So it'll be a few weeks before I have wrestling pictures to share. His team did great though with 4 individual winners and the team taking home the big tournament trophy.

So instead of spending all day watching scholastic wrestling, I was free to head over to the Roberson Museum & Science Center for their Home for the Holidays tour. Alonzo Roberson willed his home to create an “educational center …for the use and benefit of all people.” The grounds were expanded to include a science museum & planetarium as well as the original mansion.

Roberson goes all out at Christmastime with their holiday displays inviting community groups to decorate hundreds of Christmas trees as well as entire rooms in the mansion. I love visiting during the holidays to find some inspiration for my own decorating.

The Binghamton Volunteer Firefighters used a firehose coiled as a treeskirt and Mountain Top Catering decorated their entire tree in candy. I think a candy themed tree would be fun in Snuggle Bunny's room.

I, as the lone female in a house of boys, loved this tree decorated by the Broome County Doll Club. Wouldn't a paper doll garland look great in a little girl's room?

This tree topper on the Humane Society tree was just adorable.

And how great are these pine cone stars on the Four County Library System tree? A great DIY craft. My glue gun trigger finger is just itching to make some of these. They were displayed on a tree decked out with raffia and other natural materials.

In the International Hall, each country had a decorated tree. I've always wanted to do all origami ornaments on a tree like this one in the Japan exhibit, but by the time December rolls around I'm buried under 50 other projects. Maybe next year I'll do one for my craft room.

Some of the best displays, though, are in the mansion itself. I love seeing the mansion year round, because of the gorgeous woodwork, impressive built-ins, and beautiful architecture, but it's especially nice to visit during the Home for the Holidays display.

I loved this hydrangea covered tree in the front parlor decorated by the Junior League.

Here's a closeup of the front parlor fireplace. I swoon over that gorgeous stone each and every time I visit. This is SB's favorite fireplace, too, so he needed to jump into the pic.

The Dining Room had been decked out in a snowy woodland theme. There were stuffed owls, foxes, and geese displayed in a woodsy winter wonderland. SB's BFF, the princess, found this room sad and disturbing, but it was really very pretty. And who wouldn't love the built-ins in this room?

The princess may not have liked the Dining Room, but both she and SB got a huge kick out of the back parlor decorated by Marchuska Bros. Construction Company. I'm in love with the peacocks and the stags in formal wear was a fun touch in such a formal home.

One of my favorite parts of the mansion is the impressive staircase. SB likes taking the tiny wrought iron filled elevator(which I failed to take a pic of,) but I always take the stairs. CG snapped this pic of me on the lower part of the staircase with the princess ahead of me.

And here's SB & the princess meeting up at the top of the stairs. The windows in this home are unbelievable.

We wrapped up our visit by watching my friend's daughter dance. She dances with Clan Na Cara dance company and they were putting on a show in the museum yesterday. They were incredible. How long does it take to get their hair that curly? ..... 3-5 days depending on shipping. Ba Dum Bum. It's my friend's joke, I stole it. ;P

I'm sorry about the poor quality of these pics, but I think the camera was on the wrong setting. Thanks for popping in and joining me on the Roberson tour.

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About Me

I'm a wife of a super duper Computer Genius and mom to 2 boys who couldn't be more different - one's a Whirling Dervish of activity, while the other's my little Snuggle Bunny. My baby just started kindergarten and this is my journal of my tries to both start and finish all of the deferred projects from the last several years in between all of the practices, games, and concerts.